Sigh.....

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has it from 1838.

JL

James Smith <jsmithjamessmith at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: James Smith
Subject: Re: Sigh.....
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I've heard it used in a film, but can't remeber for
the life of me what the title is. It was not an new
film either, black and white, Cary Grant was the star,
a gangster with an accent (English but supposed to be
Aussie?)and a butler; the butler used it and as best I
recall was teaching the Americam girlfriend how to
speak "english", or maybe it was Aussie.


--- Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, says "Crikey !"
> all the time. Some people need to watch more Animal
> Planet.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> Michael McKernan wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Michael McKernan
> Subject: Re: Sigh.....
>
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>
> Patty Davies wrote:
>
> >
> >That is a good question. When I read it, I thought
> the exclamatory word
> >used in the same context would be 'criminy'. I have
> relatives all from
> >Minnesota who would have used 'criminy' after the
> first sentence I am
> >sure. But, I've never actually heard 'crikey'
> before.
>
> In my experience, both 'criminy' and 'crikey' (along
> with 'cracky,' which I
> believe was used by many screenwriters/actors trying
> to come up with a
> country/cowboy expression) are all 'by-' words.
> Somewhere, I heard a great
> explanation of 'by-' words by an old-time Vermonter,
> who was able to list a
> long string of by-words idiosyncratically used by
> various individuals in
> his community. All of the examples above, in this
> scenario, were used by
> people who were avoiding profanity, reshaping
> 'by-Christ,' so that they
> weren't 'using the Lord's name in vain.' 'By gum,'
> etc., used the same
> strategy to avoid using 'God.' Local variations
> apparently were endless,
> and some individuals may have gained status viz a
> viz their peer group for
> creative or aesthetically-appealing by-words, much
> as some people accord
> status to a fluent speaker of actual profanity.
>
> Use without the 'by-' now seems to be more common
> that the supposedly
> original form. Cripes! By and by, there'll be no
> more by- and by-.
>
> Michael McKernan
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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James D. SMITH |If history teaches anything
South SLC, UT |it is that we will be sued
jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com |whether we act quickly and decisively
|or slowly and cautiously.

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